The UEFA Solidarity Funds derived from the UEFA Champions League were presented to nurseries within the Youth FA during the annual event which was held on Thursday.

Youth FA president Fr. Hilary Tagliaferro encouraged all those involved in grassroots football to do their best to educate and nurture sound values in tomorrow’s footballers who after all are the future of the game in Malta. He said that success should not be measured by cups won but by how they managed to educate and encourage children to love sport.

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Fr. Hilary went on to thank the Malta Football Assocaition for the constant support and praised officials, the Council and Board Members of the Youth FA for their hard work. He finally thanked the sponsors, namely APS Bank, Liquigas, Gatorade (Farsons) and Anastasi (Panini).

MFA President Norman Darmanin Demajo expressed his admiration towards all those involved in grassroots football. He said the large majority of these people worked on a voluntary basis and sometimes even took money out of their pockets to help the nursery. Darmanin Demajo encouraged nurseries to continue working for the good of the game and appealed for a more professional mentality which would attract more children to the game.

The MFA President thanked the Youth FA for its hard work and concluded by saying that one would need to discuss the way forward with regards to transfers of young players under the age of fourteen for teh good of the children and the game.

Meanwhile Liquigas Malta Ltd Marketing Manager Noel Debattista announced that the company reached a sponsorship agreement with the Youth FA to supply medical oxygen to all football grounds being used for competitions organised by the association. Debattista says the company believed in the values, principles and respect that children could learn by playing football.

Also present for the event were MFA CEO Bjorn Vassallo, Senior Vice-President Carmelo Bartolo, Vice-President Ludovigo Micallef, Head of Legal Department Dr. Chris Bonett, national coach Pietro Ghedin, Technical Director Robert Gatt apart from representatives from the Kunsill Malti għall-Isport and the Ministry for Finance, Economy and Investment (National Lotteries Good Causes Fund).